7/27/2010 @ 6:00PM

What Not To Wear to Work

They say that appearance is everything. And in a world where jobs are few and far between, never has office attire been as important as it is now. But office dress codes have never been more confusing.

Sharon Napier, chief executive of Partners + Napier, a Rochester, N.Y., advertising company, recently called two interns into her office–one was wearing short shorts and the other had piercings in her nose and mouth. She told them outright to go home to change what they’d worn to work. “I [said to] them, ‘I’m not making judgments about your fashion choices, but you need to look professional if you want your talents to be recognized. I can’t put you in front of clients the way you’re dressed now.” She advised the interns to look at what the supervisors at her firm were wearing before they went home, so they’d know how to alter their appearances.

Napier’s company, like many others these days, allows employees to choose between traditional and business casual attire and doesn’t have a formal dress code. But more choices have led to greater confusion about what’s proper to wear to work and how to communicate this to employees. Does business casual mean neatly pressed pants and a collared shirt or cut offs and T-shirts? If bare legs and bare arms are allowed, what about bare backs or bellies? Where’s the line between business casual and weekend casual? And just how short or clingy is unprofessional?

“The problem is business casual means something different to employees at different levels of every company and in every industry–and ‘dress down Friday’ has become dress down every day in many workplaces,” says Marion Gellatly, president of Powerful Presence, a Pebble Beach, Calif.-based image consultancy. “It was easier when the suit was the business uniform because everyone knew what it looked like.”

Some companies, especially financial services and law firms, have written dress codes that offer precise guidelines. Barclays Capital, for instance, requires employees to wear suits or traditional business attire when they are meeting with clients. Barclays also defines “inappropriate casual dress” as “denim items of any color, shorts, T-shirts, sweatshirts, any sports footwear such as training shoes, any items of clothing with slogans and beach style footwear.” Appropriate casual dress at Barclays includes “blazers, sports jackets, collared shirts, pressed trousers, casual skirts and smart casual trousers,” among other items.

But who’s to say exactly what constitutes a “casual skirt” and when said skirt crosses the line? This means, at many companies these days, it’s up to individual managers to set fashion guidelines and enforce them–or hire consultants like Gellatly to offer counsel. “I’m called in when companies have a problem that they don’t know how to deal with,” she says.

The problems she sees most often are employees who dress in clothes that are too revealing or too sloppy. She cringes when she sees a woman at a business meeting whose cleavage is showing or whose mini-skirt is exposing most of her thighs, or a woman whose hemline is torn, or a man with a crumpled shirt that isn’t tucked into his trousers.

“Even though there aren’t many hard and fast rules anymore, you need to scrutinize your image because that’s the memory you leave behind when you leave the room,” she advises employees who want to get ahead or just keep their jobs. “I ask employees, ‘do you want to be remembered as credible and authoritative, or sexy, or disheveled? If your sweater is cut so low that everyone can see your bra, how seriously are you going to be taken? That’s a problem not just for your company but for you,” she says.

Napier says she must speak up more often and remind employees to dress professionally in the summer when the line between business and weekend casual often blurs. She tells women who wear sundresses to the office to keep a cardigan or jacket at their desk that they can throw on if they have a client meeting. And when a male employee once showed up in flip flops and cut-off shorts, she told him he shouldn’t come to work looking like he was about to cut his lawn.

Her employees listen, she says, because they realize that what’s good for the company is also good for their careers. The intern who had a lot of piercings removed them after Napier talked with her, and later wrote her a thank you note. The intern who’d worn short shorts started wearing slacks and skirts.

And when Napier’s 21-year-old daughter landed a business internship in New York this summer, she gave her the same guidance that she’d offered to her interns. She took her daughter shopping and helped her choose a few basic office fashions: a black suit, black dress, a gray skirt and a few solid colored shirts.

“I told her ‘if you wear open-toed shoes or sandals, make sure your toes are manicured.’ I said, ‘no matter how good a job you are doing, looking the part is very important. People will never forget if you look sloppy,’” she says.

While some fashion faux pas–such as flip flops or see-through shirts–apply to all workplaces, each company has its own fashion culture. “It’s important to learn what that is because you don’t want to stick out, you want to be part of the team,” says Jill Wiseman, who until recently was a director in the brand management group of
American Express Co.
“If you’re working in an image-conscious industry such as advertising or fashion, you have to make sure your wardrobe is up to date,” she says. “If you’re on a trading floor of a bank, you’re going to have to dress more conservatively.”

Wiseman is glad women are no longer expected to dress like men in boxy suits with floppy bow ties, as they were when they first began climbing the corporate ladder 30 years ago. But she consciously dresses differently for work than she does on weekends or for evenings out with her husband and friends. In the winter she opts for navy, gray and black suits–often wearing them as separates. Come summer, she wears brightly colored shirts and jackets. “Within the confines of dressing professionally, I like to express who I am by wearing clothes I love and playing with colors and accessories,” she says.

Gellatly advises women who want to be perceived as strong and capable at work to choose a dark navy over a peach-colored jacket. “Dark colors project more authority,” she says. So do lightweight wool or cotton fabrics that are firm, vs. soft and pliable jersey fabrics, she believes. “If you take a monochromatic sleeveless dress and throw a solid-colored cardigan over it, you’ll look a lot more professional than if you wear a flashy, floral pattern,” she says.